On Beautiful Feet

by Fr. John A. Peck

I am an artist, so you should believe me when I say that there are few body parts as ugly as feet. Feet aren’t pretty. Among beginning artists, they are hard to render accurately and take some time to get right.

Isaiah tells us

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace.

– Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15

My wife, She-who-must-be-obeyed (Quae-pararenda-est in Latin), who is a glorious soprano, and accomplished choral director herself, once performed this piece at a Handel’s oratorio. I was a new priest at the time. I felt like she was singing it for me. I don’t have a recording of her beautiful version of this glorious song, but this one will do. Enjoy it, and ponder on what Isaiah says and why. (Hint: It’s not about our feet, though we follow those footsteps)

How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of Peace.

- Isaiah 52:7 & Romans 10:15

We must be super-conservative in preserving the Orthodox faith, and super-modern in propagating it.

- St. Nikolai Velimirovich

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.